Brace yourselves because KAIA is here—the new P-pop group to shape the Pinoy Pop music scene.
On November 10, ShowBT Philippines—the same music management that handles SB19 and 4th Impact—introduced to the world their newest all-girl group called KAIA. The five-member girl group consists of Charlotte, the group’s main dancer; Angela, the leader and main vocal; Sophia, the lead vocal and dancer; Alexa, the lead rapper; and Charice, the group’s main rapper.
The group first gave the public a glimpse of their talent last December 2021 with their pre-debut single “KAYA.” Now, KAIA makes their official debut with their new track, “BLAH BLAH.”
Ahead of their debut, the new P-pop girl group shared the meaning behind their forthcoming single. In a press conference attended by POP! on April 6, Angela revealed that the song stemmed from their personal experiences.
“Actually, ‘Blah Blah’ came from our own experiences,” Angela said. “When we started writing the song, we asked about each other’s experiences and translate[d] it to our lyrics.” She also added that the song started to become about empowerment because it tackles love and how it’s not all about fun and happiness, which they believe a lot of people will relate to. “I want people to know that love isn’t always about fun and happiness. You’ll go through a lot of struggles and obstacles.”
Angela went on to explain that they want to tell their listeners through the song that they have to prioritize and love themselves first to be strong and empowered. She said: “It will all start there. When you love yourself first, you’ll be able to love other people as well.”
Aside from promoting self-love, the group has been sending powerful messages through their craft. In fact, in their concept trailer, “ANINO,” they tackled social and personal issues, such as body shaming and gender stereotyping. According to them, these are some of the issues they personally went through. But instead of viewing them as struggles, they took them as inspirations to create music.
Sophia said: “Our music is about telling our own stories. So all of these struggles, we take them as inspirations to write music and share it with other people as well.”
Angela added that they wanted their listeners to be confident in their own self and believe in their beauty because “we’re unique and different in our own way.”
The girls of KAIA also shared their humble beginnings. Like their sibling P-pop act SB19, KAIA underwent the same process where they went through a series of auditions.
“We were [first] handpicked [by the management], and then we auditioned,” Angela recalled. “Then we had monthly evaluations to test our singing and dancing skills. From there, KAIA was formed.”
Their initial musical journey was admittedly not that smooth, as they’ve encountered different challenges throughout the process.
According to Charlotte, their training wasn’t that easy because of their different skill sets and experiences. She explained: “Some of us are dancers and some are singers, so our vocal and dance training was quite challenging before.”
For Angela, being away from their families proved to be quite a challenge, too, but being in KAIA, they were able to build a new family and became stronger and more independent together.
Charice, on the other hand, believed that their different upbringings and personality were among the challenges they faced. Luckily, the girls know how to compromise and adjust to each other’s needs.
“I’m fortunate to be part of KAIA because I can see they’re adjusting, and we’re not trying to be narrow-minded,” Charice shared.
Despite facing difficulties, the girls managed to see the bright side of joining the P-pop industry, where they found motivations through their families, the members themselves, the people who’ve been supporting them, and their love for music. “We enjoy music and we wanted to share our own music that can be enjoyed by our listeners,” said Alexa.
In the past years, we’ve seen the rise and emergence of P-pop groups in the Philippine music scene. So, what sets KAIA apart? While every group has its own style and way to translate its message to the audience, Angela said that their individual stories are what makes KAIA different.
“Each of us has different stories to tell, and we want [to translate it to] our music to inspire people,” she said. However, she also believed that other groups have their unique stories to tell, as well. They even expressed that they also took inspiration not only from each other, but from other P-pop groups, too, including SB19.
“We respect their craft, and we also take into consideration that maybe we can learn something from them. And maybe we can write a story about this,” said Sophia.
When asked about KAIA’s own sound, the girls shared that they’re still in the process of learning and finding it as they want to be versatile and not stick with one concept only. “We’re still learning what sound we want, but we’re not closing any doors to any influences,” Angela said.
As P-pop continues to flourish both in the local and international scene, KAIA promised to still help make Pinoy Pop known through their contributions—producing good music and telling their stories through it. “We want to translate that to the people through our music and concepts.”
Listen to KAIA’s debut single “BLAH BLAH” here.
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